OtherNetwork: Transmigração

Artists: Pablo Guardiola, Michael Linares, Jochi Melero, Mima, William Murphy, Fabián Vélez

OtherNetwork will continue its nomadic curatorial project with Transmigração, opening at Pivô in Salvador on the weekend of September 6–7, 2025. The exhibition is guest-curated by the Puerto Rican artist-led initiative Beta–Local. Centered on the concept of transmigration, movement across and between bodies, territories, and functions, the project serves as both a curatorial and conceptual framework, shaping a dynamic exhibition and series of rituals at Casa Boulevard and throughout Salvador.

“It all started with a conversation. During our first visit to Salvador as a collective, we were told a story at the Casa do Boulevard about festive gatherings held there in the 1960s. At those events, a collective soup was prepared—one that, according to those who lived it, didn’t just feed bodies but helped hold together a spirit of experimentation that contributed to what would become the cultural imaginary of Tropicália.”—Beta–Local

In Puerto Rico, artist Jochi Melero, also known as the "Soup Wizard," prepared a caldo santo, shared among many. The pot used for that ritual was later transformed into a pinhole camera, with which Melero traveled across the island capturing images. What was once a cooking vessel became a device for seeing—a container of light, memory, and transformation. This cauldron-camera will become part of the exhibition as sculpture and visual archive.

In Salvador, the public preparation of the "Sopa de Rumores" begins with the gathering of ingredients and utensils. The cooking is accompanied by a sonic invocation by Mima, who performs wearing a garment designed by William Murphy, tracing the transition between body, voice, and object. The project expands through contributions by Michael Linares and Fabián Vélez, who present a phytoacoustic sound installation translating the electrical signals of plants into sound, and by Pablo Guardiola, whose photographic installation centers on Caribbean flora.

The tools and materials used—spoons, cloths, pots, textiles—are preserved as activated artifacts, bearing the traces of use and shared experience. Here, to curate is to call forth memory. The relationships between objects reveals a network where function, symbolism, and presence overlap.

The project is initiated within the context of OtherNetwork, a collaborative project that connects independent art spaces worldwide. Since 2022, OtherNetwork and ifa—Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen have reimagined the framework of a touring exhibition by embracing the form of a relay. For each iteration, an independent art space is given the opportunity to invite another from abroad to guest-curate an exhibition in their space. The upcoming exhibition stands as a testament to OtherNetwork’s commitment to supporting independent cultural production through transnational collaboration, and will be followed by an exhibition at Beta–Local in San Juan, opening in November 2025.

OtherNetwork is a non-profit foundation, initiated by ifa—Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen in collaboration with Cookies Architecture.